By Stephen Barnes, Property Secrets Community Member

When Property Secrets asked me to give my experience and thoughts on the Polish property market I told them those thoughts might not coincide with the best interests of Property Secrets. To their very great credit, they said that was not the point and asked me to go ahead anyway.

First, a brief background to my activities. In late 2004 I decided to invest in Krakow and bought a building with seven flats, some occupied, for just under a million zlotys. I then paid the tenants to leave and got permission for loft conversion, and sold the building on for something over two million. With a partner I then bought a building in Krakow for just over five million zlotys. There we have created 31 renovated flats, producing profits of more than we paid.

Given that we borrowed 50% of the buying cost, the return will be nearly fourfold. At the same time I myself bought another building in Podgorze, Krakow, in instalments, paying out just under a million zlotys, with land that that is now having 24 flats built on it.

The profit will be about five million, so the return there will be six fold. In Torun, with my partner, we contracted for 300,000 Zlotys to buy two buildings 2.5 years later for 1.8 m Zlotys, but sub sold for 3.15 m without the need to find the purchase money, and turned 300,000 into 1.6 million, making a five-fold return. The exchange rate has improved things even further since it has moved from 7 Zlotys to the pound to 4.7.